Mobile phones, and in particular, smart phones capable of transmitting and receiving both voice and data signals, are being used more often. Consequently, users are spending more time speaking to others using their mobile phones and hence, they are holding the mobile phone in close proximity to their head for increasingly greater cumulative periods of time.
Mobile telephones use electromagnetic radiation to communicate with a base station. The World Health Organisation has classified mobile phone radiation as possibly carcinogenic and recommend that users reduce their exposure to the electromagnetic radiation emitted from mobile phones. Therefore, there is a concern by some users that the radiation from mobile phones may be harmful.
Mobile phone manufacturers and health advocates concerned about the increasing incidence of brain cancers amongst users who regularly use their mobile phone recommend use of a headset arrangement during calls. However, users generally prefer to hold a mobile phone in close proximity to their head when using their mobile phone as it is more convenient.
The need to carry a headset in addition to a mobile phone is also inconvenient and therefore many users tend not to use headset arrangements during telephone calls for this reason. There is also a suggestion that headset arrangements comprised of earphones connected to the mobile phone via a conducting wire in which the earphones are directly inserted into a user's ears present, and potentially increase, the same dangers associated mobile phone radiation. Many users therefore do not accept the use of such headset arrangements to be an acceptable solution to the problem.
Air tube headsets have been proposed as an alternative solution to the use of conventional headset arrangements as a means of enabling a user to avoid holding the mobile phone in close proximity to their head during mobile phone use. Air tube headsets, commonly used as a sound transmitting device for passengers in aeroplanes, are hollow plastic tubing formed into a Y-shaped (or fork) arrangement so that the tubing may be connected to, and extends from, the mobile phone to a user's ears. As hollow air tubing does not contain any wires or conducting material, it is often described as an alternative and safe method of achieving mobile sound transmission and allows the user to hold the phone away from the head during use. However, hollow air tube headsets have a number of disadvantages. Firstly, the need to carry the air tube headset is inconvenient and therefore many users tend not to use air tube headsets for this reason. Secondly, many users report inferior sound transmission and sound quality with the use of such headsets and therefore avoid using them.
Manufacturers of many electronic communications devices include warnings in their product literature in relation to radiation risks. For example, most manufacturers of mobile phones generally include warnings regarding the use of their products in relation to the risk of electromagnetic radiation to the user. In particular, product literature will often include recommendations to users to hold the mobile phone a short distance away from the user's head to reduce the risks associated with exposing the user's head to radiation at the levels in the immediate vicinity of the device. In the case of mobile phones, recommendations in manufacturers' product literature range from 10 mm to 25 mm. Unfortunately, these recommendations are rarely followed by users who generally press the mobile phone against their head when using the phone.
Various devices have been proposed to reduce exposure to potentially harmful radiation from electronic communications devices including mobile phones. Although protective casings including a passive antenna which is intended (when used) to reduce the amount of electromagnetic radiation directed toward the user, it is difficult to persuade a user to replace their existing protective case with a new case comprising a passive antenna for the purpose of reducing exposure to radiation. Generally, users purchase a protective casing at the same time that they purchase their electronic communications device and are reluctant to replace the casing without reason.
As a result, manufacturers of protective casings comprising a passive antenna manufacture a wide range of styles and colours of protective cases to suit a wide range of user preferences. Of course, this requirement significantly increases a manufacturer's inventory, storage and shipping costs and increases the prospects of needing to discard, or substantially reduce the sale price, of stock in instances where the style/colour of the protective casing is not considered attractive to users and excess stock remains.
Conventional protective casings described above also have the associated disadvantage of reducing the signal strength of the mobile phone thereby affecting a user's ability to connect and stay connected to the mobile phone network. Of course, any deterioration of signal strength resulting from the use of a protective casing will cause users to remove and discard the protective casing.
A need therefore exists for an alternative device to reduce the exposure of mobile phone radiation to a user's head during mobile phone use that is safe, convenient, and that does not result in any compromise of the sound quality or signal strength of the mobile phone. Further, there is a need for such a device to be capable of use with existing protective casings such that they can be fitted to mobile phones without requiring the user to discard their existing protective casing.